Healing 102 - HoTs: maybe not so Hot?

No, I jest. HoTs are the bomb, at least for me and my OP class. And I shall tell you why.

For a DoK, HoTs are commonly overlooked and I can understand that. They only have two of them and they're not very good (or so I hear; feel free to prove me otherwise). Instead, they rely on their nearly spammable, short cast-time group heal to be extremely effective in a dire pinch. This is their strength as a healer. They're fast about it.

Zealots, on the other hand, are not as quick and their most powerful heals will take twice as long than a DoK's group heal. Thing is, we have more of them.

I have stressed this before but I shall stress it again for good measure: Leaping Alteration is our primary renown leeching tool. I'll give you mine as an example: Without critting I can periodically heal people within and without my party for around 350; if it crits it can go as high as 500. This is not to be ignored. At all.

Tzeentch's Cordial is also quite a powerful tool: not only have I seen it crit for 1k, you can now also equip that tactic that makes each tick capable of procing a 1k armor buff and a 10% less armor penetration shield. This can dramatically increase the survivability of a targeted DPS or healer.

Imagine this scenario. A tank has valiantly pushed onwards to disrupt the enemy's backlines. Immediately he is focused by whatever defenses they left there but a small force continues to beat down your own backline. Chances are that your tank is out of groupheal range. But it's very difficult for him to be out of single-target range as it is one of the longest (150 ft) in the game. So, if you just HoT him up with both LA and TC, he will be getting ticks of about 500 from each, a bit more if you're lucky. While you spam a bit of DoP to keep yourself and fellow healers up you need only the occasional Flash or Elixir to keep said tank productive, bearing in mind that tanks in backlines are very often ignored until it's too late. Even if he goes down you have earned extra renown and have kept enemy healers disrupted by proxy.

Also, in a PvE situation, HoTs can surely make a difference.

Take ToVL for example. The... 3rd boss? (the one that bombs and teleports and does the scarabs with the bridges and the river...) will deal pretty heavy damage to every party member over a short period of time. If you have not cast a pre-emptive LA over your party this damage is much harder to heal and can sometimes result in a MDPS casualty. Seeing as all these bosses are a DPS race, that can be an issue. Also, in dmg heavy bosses like the last one, having HoTs tick while your AP restores can make the difference between a phat new Tyrant chest and... not.

But lets not be extremists about this.

I came across a Zealot in T3 the other day that, while being the only healer in a 2 party warband, had resorted to only casting HoTs. So I asked him why. And he merely replied "is that wrong?"

I'll tell you now my friends. Yes. Yes, it is very wrong.

If you're in a situation where everyone and everything is taking damage, Group Healing is your Friend. Group Healing is so my friend I'm even specced all the way up Dark Rites because of it.

But HoTs help. And they can help a lot. And if you're leeching for renown, HoTs are more than your friend, they're your lover, your better half, your soulmate.

----EXTRA----

Keeping yourself alive: A few tips

Lets brush up on our survival skills.
First of all, learn to detaunt. Detaunt causes your targets to deal 50% less damage to you so, if u see a Slayer coming at you or a WL getting ready to pounce, detaunt before hand. Most of them like taking a great big bash at you right at first so you panic. What you can do is cut that damage in half and get a bit more protection on you, more specifically,
Embrace The Warp: like detaunt, reduces incoming damage by 50% but it is time based, not anything else. Plus, it stacks with detaunt (unless I'm terribly, terribly mistaken) and it makes you unsetbackable - and I know that isn't a word - meaning you can cast Elixirs on yourself and they won't be set back.
Be aware of your surroundings. Hide behind a tree or a wall, keeping in group heal range of the rest of your party.
If a tank suddenly breaks for your healer cluster, move to the side or towards and past him: there's a stagger inc.
Keep in mind that healers will die. Sometime's there's no way around it. People will die in WAR and healers will, ideally, go down first.
Err... I've said most of these things already. You might find more useful stuff here, here or generally here.

EDIT: Btw, HAPPY 100 POSTS ME!!!